Inside the Star

Toronto the Good yields Jarsky the Bad

Joris Jarsky is très cool in a distressed leather jacket purchased in Montreal eight years ago, sitting in a gifting lounge at the Toronto International Film Festival where he's doing press for three films: Toronto Stories , The Green Door and Blindness , which opened yesterday.

Joris Jarsky is très cool in a distressed leather jacket purchased in Montreal eight years ago, sitting in a gifting lounge at the Toronto International Film Festival where he's doing press for three films: Toronto Stories, The Green Door and Blindness, which opened yesterday.

How does he juggle the three?

"With grace and style – the only way," he deadpans. "I`m into oregano oil; you feel like a pizza but it brings the toxins right out. I`m happy to do this. I'm from Toronto and to walk into the Elgin Theatre and be introduced with (Blindness co-star) Julianne Moore ..."

Toronto Stories is an anthology of four tales connected by a missing boy and guided by four different directors. Jarsky's instalment was helmed by David Sudz Sutherland.

"I play a guy who breaks out of jail to find his girlfriend, who turns out to be engaged," he says. "Hilarity ensues. Some might call it violence. I'm the kid who can`t get his s--- together. He doesn`t think before he acts. He's a bit off his rocker and he's lovable but doesn`t know it."

In The Green Door, he's another badass. "Don McKellar and I get mistaken for the same person," Jarsky, 33, says. "We look alike from behind though I'm a little bit taller than him. After five days, we're all shrinking."

In Blindness, his character is just called Hooligan. "Yes, there is a theme to last year's roles," he allows. "This character is more violent and twisted than in Toronto Stories. He gets contaminated (and goes blind) and put in jail and goes mad. Fernando (Meirelles, the director) didn't want us to come in as bad guys but turn into bad guys with some mitigating circumstances. In Julianne and Mark's (Ruffalo) ward, they live righteously and don't sink into the muck, but retain their decency and dignity. We have a gun. We shoot randomly and it's extremely scary – in a room with 40 people and someone has a gun."

The whole cast, extras and all, had a coach to help them simulate blindness. The coach "made us walk with blindfolds. They took us out in traffic: `Okay, find your way.' You felt the physicality and there was camaraderie among the cast. I bumped into Mark Ruffalo and it was weird bumping into each other, feeling each other up."

Jarsky is such a nice boy to be playing bad. He was the youngest of three boys with a Ukrainian-Italian father and Belgian mother. His father, who was born in New York, had his masters in theology from U of T. "Dad is a contractor so I grew up around the sound of a skill saw. They asked him to shave his beard, so that was the end of his theological career. My grandfather was a cement layer and a garbage man at night. He was a civil rights activist and both my parents were human (rights) activists."

Jarsky attended the Etobicoke School of the Arts and the National Theatre School. After graduating in 1999, he was cast in the play The Awakening and walked away with a Dora Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Male.

He started working on TV, logging 26 episodes of the series Vampire High and appearances in such episodics as Sue Thomas: F.B. Eye, The Eleventh Hour and Mutant X.

His film credits include Foolproof, a heist caper co-starring Ryan Reynolds, the recently minted Mr. Scarlett Johansson, and The Hulk, where his role was upgraded.

"I was in it quite a lot," Jarsky recalls. "I was the soldier in the Jeep and Tim Roth throws a taxi on me. I play a character I never play: I am capable of doing good. I play a lot of troubled individuals. My mom thinks it`s because I grew up in Parkdale. I never feel comfortable playing a straight-up romantic lead. Character actors are more fun and interesting."

He is even the bad guy in animated features. He does voice work on the cartoon Turbo Dogs. "I play Strut, a dachshund, and even in the cartoon world I'm a dog who causes trouble. But I say `sorry' whenever I've cheated, lied or stolen something."

At least he's a polite scoundrel. Mom must be proud.

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